The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
If you haven’t read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks yet (it’s only been out for 2 weeks), you probably will soon. In this nonfiction merger between history, science, race relations, and bioethics, Rebecca Skloot tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of 5 who died of cervical cancer in 1951. The thing is, not all of Lacks’ cells died with her. While she was in the hospital, a doctor took cell samples from her cervix without her consent. These cells–dubbed “HeLa” cells–proved able to survive and multiply in a laboratory environment, which no other human cells had done. Scientists took this discovery and ran with it, growing literally tons of tissue culture from the cells and testing and developing thousands of drugs. We’ve probably all benefitted from the research done with HeLa cells, and pharmaceutical companies have reaped in profits, but what about Lacks’ family? As Skloot shows in her book, Henrietta Lacks’ children didn’t know HeLa cells existed until 1973 (over twenty years after their mother’s death), and doctors had deliberately kept them in the dark along the way. As Eric Roston of the Washington Post explains, Skloot’s book is “a deftly crafted investigation of a social wrong committed by the medical establishment, as well as the scientific and medical miracles to which it led.” See what other critics are saying below.
“Readers are transported from the realm of white-coat laboratory science to the realms of poverty, racial discrimination, evangelism, fear and, ultimately, a weird brand of hope.” – Steve Weinberg, San Francisco Chronicle
“‘Immortal Life’ reads like a novel. The prose is unadorned, crisp and transparent.” – Eric Roston, Washington Post
“A complex and fascinating drama about how medical research intersected the lives of a poor black family in America.” – Jerry Coyne, Barnes & Noble Review
“Science writing is often just about ‘the facts.’ Skloot’s book, her first, is far deeper, braver and more wonderful.” – Lisa Margonelli, New York Times
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